Sometimes what you read on paper and imagine in your mind doesn’t manifest itself in practice. Even with the low gas prices of the mid 1990’s it was pretty clear that my 1968 Galaxie 500 just wouldn’t be a good choice to commute 60 miles a day to college without breaking the poor college kid bank. Much like the first car search, shortly after my high school graduation a new search began in earnest to figure out the “perfect” commuter car that still was fun, reliable, and most importantly looked cool. Almost instantly I thought I had it figured out.

Everything I had read about and heard about Hondas during high school had been nothing but lilacs, spring flowers, and unicorn tears so they were at the top of my list. Unfortunately I found out pretty quickly that so did everyone else – and they were either clapped out, priced too much, or were sold before I got there. Nearly resigning myself to a boring first gen Ford Taurus, when I picked up the latest paper I found an ad that was too good to be true – a 1987 Honda CRX Si!

Not my car–but aside from the euro side lights, completely identical including the ’80s era foglampsPhoto Credit: Aaron Severson/Ate Up With Motor

It was a pretty rapid purchase after I discovered it was black with tinted windows, mostly immaculate aside from some wheel well rust, and it passed a quick mechanic check. With a fresh bank loan on the books I drove it home in the sweltering July Nebraska heat to discover my first bonus – the AC worked! Sure, it made the car pretty (ridiculously) slow but after a couple summers sweating in the Galaxie it was a welcome surprise.

Pretty quickly the afterglow wore off as I realized that first, I’m a six foot two football-built Nebraskan and the interior was quite a bit smaller than the Galaxie and DEFINITELY wasn’t built for me. While the seats were comfortable enough, you also had better be pretty good friends with your passenger as well – you were pretty close to them. It also wasn’t the quietest place at highway speeds with frameless door windows leaking at the seals, and sound deadening seemingly was an afterthought. As a comparison, with windows closed the then-nearly 30 year old Galaxie was quieter than the then 8 year old Honda. It was annoying but hey, it was also sporty and fast.. right?

120mph is a joke… right?

Either I got a dud or I didn’t properly appreciate how it was supposed to work. Even though I put fresh suspension components and good tires on it shortly on it after I purchased it, I never thought it handled particularly well. In fact at times it was a bit terrifying as the semi-independent rear beam suspension had this tendency to just up and decide to come out whenever it felt like it. Thank everything that I’d spent several winters and gravel road driving the Galaxie, but this was on dry roads – mostly interstate on and offramps. It had a punishing ride thanks to the low stance and low profile tires, which I could have excused for decent handling – but it didn’t. My Dad’s 1993 Mazda 626 ES at the time handled and rode leap years better than the Honda.

It’s reliable and economical, you cry! Yet, it wasn’t either of those things. On the economy side it would get in the 30’s, but just barely, on the highway with a LOT of noise as even in fifth it was pulling well over 3,000 RPM at 70mph. Reliability wise it was a car that seemed to like being in the shop with all manner of nagging little annoyances. My Dad’s 626, on the other hand, would get almost 30 mpg of blissful powerful silence on the Interstate which I knew well as it was my college commuter the many times the CRX was in the shop.

Winter driving and power are tirades I should probably not get on, but let’s just say that even with the big fat BFG Radial T/A’s and 390 the Galaxie was almost a better winter car than the CRX with it’s low ground clearance and low weight. Power wise I went from “well this is probably OK” on the test drive to “wow, this thing is annoying” as I’d downshift into fourth gear on the Interstate to make it – loudly – up hills above 65mph.

I probably could have stomached its defects if it would have been economical or reliable, or maybe if it was really a “sports car” but it didn’t do either well – or even at all, in my mind. During ownership of it I went from college student to college dropout with a couple jobs, one of which was as a bouncer at a strip club. Throw in a penchant for partying and the “cool look” of the car worked out OK, while the in-town mileage and in-town driving annoyances were tolerable. I didn’t enjoy the car at all but by that time I’d pretty much replaced everything so it had stopped breaking, and there was still a bank note to be paid off.

The only surviving picture of the car, mostly as an afterthought when I got a picture of my brother and a buddy. Hey.. look at that new ’96 SHO!

During the last year or so of ownership one of my friends nicknamed it “Roach” and that’s probably the best way I could describe it. It never had a mechanical issue that was terminal, and during the time I had a few accidents but never were they enough for insurance to total it. It just kind of existed and kept annoying me along the way.

In the fall of 1998 I was effectively done with it, which was pretty sad because by then it was probably in the best physical and mechanical shape it had been in since it left the factory. I’d fixed the rust, repainted several areas that had clear coat issues, replaced every mechanical issue it had, and put another fresh set of tires on it.

With the bank note almost up on it, I let my parents sell it to a friend of my brothers and didn’t even get involved in it – I just wanted the bank note paid off, and told them to keep anything above that to help pay off some of the small loans they’d given me to go to college. To this day I don’t even remember him picking it up, I just remember the relief of having the Roach out of my life for good.

55 Comments

I’m sorry your Honda experience was less than positive. I’ve never personally had any experience with these cars, as by the time I was about 5, the tuner crowd had moved on to Integras and the Civic Si.

You had the wrong 1980’s two-seat sports car. The Mk1 MR2 would have been a much better choice. Admittedly heavier than the CRX, it was also roomy for its two occupants (I’m a six-footer and it fit fine even with the seat moved up a bit for more leverage on the clutch), handled like a mid-engined car should and was Corolla-reliable. It also stickered a little higher than the Honda, but I picked up a 16,000-mile 1986 black/black leather car for $5250 in 1992. Best purchase I ever made.

The engine was wanting for torque but not for revs with a 7500-rpm redline, it shifted beautifully and proved to me for the first time that sporty handling and a decent ride were not mutually exclusive. Rumors abounded of Lotus’ involvement in its development, and owners had little reason to doubt them. The lack of weight on the front wheels did result in some understeer in the snow, but a sandbag in the front trunk offset the need somewhat for Scandinavian flicks to get around corners.

Of course, it suffered from rust issues as all Japanese cars did at the time, particularly at the rear wheelwells. Still, I owned two, ran six-figure mileages on both and only had to replace wear items, none of which was a clutch.

One other flaw was its lack of practicality versus the CRX with an engine where the spacious hatch compartment would otherwise be. But you could carry a weekend’s worth of soft-sided luggage for two in the rear trunk pretty easily.

29 mpg in Long Island traffic was routine and I would love to have another if I could find a rust-free example.

Almost bought a 2nd gen CRX but the salesman told me I wouldn’t enjoy it’s low slung seating position…I’m built very much like the author.

I’m currently on my 4th Honda product and some of the comments made are valid. ALL Hondas and most Acuras seem to have been assembled with zero thought to sound deadening. You just drive with the “tunes” turned up higher than normal. Fuel economy? In town it’s always been the low 30s, HIGHER than any other car (except the Infiniti G20) I’ve owned. My current Civic has gotten into the upper 40s on long interstate trips.
My 89 Civic let you know when the A/C compressor kicked in and out. The car would seem to lose power, but worse, a VERY loud click from a relay under the glove box sounded seconds before the compressor turned on and off.
3 of my 4 Hondas were rust free. HOWEVER, my 1st Civic had a water leak at the cowl…unfortunately, a chronic problem for Civics and it put rain water right on top of the ECM.
The handling? Driven VERY “aggressively” my 89 Civic came close a few times (especially in the wet) to spinning me off the road TAIL first. I thought only Porsches and maybe Corvairs could do that.
I am a Honda fan, obviously, but while I admire CRXs I doubt I’ll ever own one. My fav? Those bright yellow ones from the late 80s.

Beware steam cleaning under the bonnet.A guy at my brother’s work steam cleaned his engine and destroyed an expensive electrical component(ECM?).He got really lucky that there was a badly damaged CRX in the scrapyard and the replacement was had for a fraction of the cost of a new part

A fair number of FWD hot hatches of this vintage will oversteer enthusiastically if you lift off the throttle in mid-corner. The most legendary example is probably the Peugeot 205 GTI, but it wasn’t alone in that. Some, like the Volkswagen GTI, would actually hoist a rear wheel at the limit.

It’s really a function of rear roll stiffness. Most of these cars have MacPherson struts in front and a front weight bias, which induces lots of understeer, so the hot hatch versions compensate by adding a stiff rear anti-roll bar, which turns the normal FWD tuck-in on lift into oversteer.

VW Rabbits were pissing on fire hydrants long before the GTI came out in the US. A mechanic friend of mine hated the spongy feel of the brake pedal and adjusted my rear drums up as much as possible. On a rainy day I enthusiastically entered a sweeping right hander, braked, and saw my life pass before my eyes. Once back home I readjusted the rears so that they were far less aggressive. On our Bilstein Rabbit car we took the pole for one race then realized that we had forgotten to adjust the rears at all. Prior to the advent of anti-lock brakes, the ’85 and later GTIs actually had inferior braking to the drum-braked cars. Wide tires and light weight could make handling tricky, even on a straight road. For winter driving I kept a mounted set of skinny Michelin Xs which helped in the sloppy stuff.

I’ve owned Preludes, Integras, Celicas, 80s Accords, etc. and the only FWD car I’ve ever been able to get consistent lift oversteer from was a 4-cyl/automatic Ford Contour my mom owned. The first time it happened was in light rain on a tight, circular parkway off-ramp – I wasn’t going very fast and since the exit was on a fairly steep incline I just let off the throttle to slow down and then WHOAAA NELLIE!! Scared the shit out of the guy in front of me!

Note to the author: all you have to do to correct this type of oversteer is give the car some gas. Even the slightest bit will pull it out.

Yes, the domestic FWD cars have the same issue. I spun my Sunfire GT at a five way intersection on the drive home in the first snow after purchasing the car. It was quite the experience… I think situations like that are the reason why the tire companies suggest you put the tires with tread on the *back* of the car, rather than the front…

I think a majority of these cars suffered from too much hooning abuse, which is probably why they disappeared from the roads much more quickly than Civics of the same era. Strangely enough there seem to be a few ovoid Tauri still on the road. I suspect it’s because the rust proofing on the Taurus was superior to Honda rust proofing of the 80’s and 90’s. The few Hondas still on the road from that era are all rust buckets.

Buddy of mine had an ’85 CRX HF. I think it had all of 37 HP. It was a good enough car for running around our college town and it got around 40 mpg in town so that was a bonus. He and I drove it from Terre Haute, Indiana, to his hometown of Edison, New Jersey, one Spring Break, and that’s were I learned much of what you report here: it vibrated harshly and was very noisy at speed. It was kind of a punishing trip, actually. On the way back, we drove through a snowstorm on the Pennsy Turnpike. My buddy was driving but my knuckles were still white as the semi *tires* towered over us. I was afraid that one wrong patch of ice someplace and we’d be squashed like a bug.

As far as being awful in the wintertime, I concur. I think the D-series engine must be especially lightweight, since I’m able to spin the right tire of my Civic accelerating up hills at low speed in second gear if it’s raining. Put a few passengers in the back, and the steering lightens noticeably, and when I tried disconnecting the P/S belt as an experiment in max MPG–it made no difference–I didn’t have to put much effort into turning the car. The trade-off, however, is that understeer is surprisingly minimal for a sedan with no sporting pretensions.

Hills were utterly impossible, and almost laughable. I remember the first winter I had it, my Dad drove it once and commented that it was worse in snow than his 626ES when he had left the summer-only Potenzas on during the first snowstorm of the winter.

I will admit that the steering was the most direct of any car I’ve ever owned, that I will give it. No P/S combined with small tires and a quick steering box meant you really could just flick the thing… but at the risk of the backend suddenly coming out.

Yeah, I forgot two trips like that. My longest trip in my CRX was from my house in Lincoln, NE to Fort Leonardwood, MO and then on to St Louis, Mo. It really was an exhausting trip – I’d only had the car for a year, but after that decided it definitely was NOT a road trip car.

It’s also the first, and only, car that has left me stranded in the snow – and almost tried to kill me in the snow. Once some buddies and I got caught in a Blizzard in rural Nebraska, and finally made it to the little town of Utica, NE. Only to end up stuck in a snowbank about two blocks from a gas station. With below zero temps and winds howling in the 60-70mph range that cursed heater – or lack of – almost killed us until we finally got the car free and made it to the gas station.

I’m glad I’m not the only one.. kicker is, I REALLY wanted to like that car.

Meanwhile 6 years ago it was time for me to buy a car for my boys. Of course the older one was clamoring for a Honda and he really thought the CRX looked cool. I find it looks cool myself, like a go cart with roof with clean sharp styling.

The old man ran a cross a Mazda Protege with 148000 miles on it and it is still doing its job. It is pretty much what you expect the Honda to be, except the cool factor.

It also wasn’t the quietest place at highway speeds with frameless door windows leaking at the seals,

heh…my 85 GLC leaked around the window seals too, and it’s windows had frames. The slipstream would pull the window frames so far out, I could see daylight. R&T observed the same thing in the Euro Ford Fiesta. That’s just how small cars were built then.

As for the gremlins, Honda wasn’t up to the standard they reached in the 90s. My 1996 issue of CR flags the 88 CRX for below average reliability for clutch, electrical, a/c, brakes, exhaust and rust. Noone was up to 90s standards in the 80s. Even the all conquering Camry and Corolla was plagued with electrical and brake gremlins in the late 80s.

CRXs were pretty well gone around here by 2000. The few survivors were high mileage rust buckets by then. A coworker called me one day, wanting me to find her a CRX as she was shocked by the price of gas, which had just cracked $2/gallon and she wasn’t feeling the love for her Pontiac. I suggested she look for a newer Civic or DelSol. She got over the notion in a few days.

Still…I wouldn’t mind having a CRX or DelSol to putz around in, or a nice, small, 80s VW Cabriolet.

Exactly–standards for reliability were completely different in those days. My parents’ ’86 Accord was constantly getting its brakes replaced, and its master cyl went before 100k miles, and alternator, at 60k, not to mention to constant carburetor problems. Granted, it was used for short distance driving in a horrible climate, but cars these days are generally more reliable (my dad’s ’07 RAV4 has been unimpressive, however, and has even begun rusting).

constantly getting its brakes replaced, and its master cyl went before 100k miles, and alternator, at 60k, not to mention to constant carburetor problems.

My 70 Cougar got a new master cylinder at less than 48,000 miles…I don’t recall how many less, the car had 48K on it when I went to the 78 Zephyr…which was an entirely different story. The Cougar also got a new turn signal switch, new ball joints, tie rod ends and two bendixes.

In comparison, the 85 GLC was a revelation. In 12 years and 85,000, it consumed ball joints and the instrument panel lights failed. The 81 GLC was much less happy, consuming an oil pump drive chain, tie rod ends, air injection pump, clutch, and, when I donated it, what sounded like a broken link on the double row timing chain and sounds of impending ball joint failure, in 18 years/98,000.

Interesting. My parents’ ’81 GLC Wagon was a disaster, but the ’83 GLC hatchback they also bought was fine.

They’d bought the wagon to replace our Renault 5 because Japanese=reliable. Ha. The wagon had all kinds of trouble, not least with the hideous dealer-installed AC. In ’86 they dumped the wagon and went over to Honda Civics for good. The ’83 GLC was nearly trouble free until I inherited it, and I had until 1993.

Steve

Posted October 12, 2014 at 9:29 AM

’81 GLC Wagon was a disaster,

The 81 wagon was on the earlier rear drive GLC platform. The rear drive GLC was, on average, decent, compared to other cheap little cars of the 70s. My 81 GLC was a sedan on the new for 81 front drive platform

My Aunt’s 82 Dodge Colt ate it’s clutch at maybe as much as 50,000, a common issue according to CR. Her 87 Subie barely staggered to 100,000, with major oil and coolant leaks.

I suspect that people who were not car owners 30 years ago do not really appreciate what severe money pits even “good” cars were. Then there was the other end of the spectrum: the 78 Zephyr I bought new, that was in the shop every month for two years, before I dumped it for the Renault, which was an improvement.

I can’t shake the urge to get a last-gen CRX Si, maybe because I hope what others have told me is true – that they fixed all the bad and they’re really good. I still to this day love the styling of the car, but after living with it.. I can only relate it to deciding to hook up with Paris Hilton before ever talking to her. Yeah.

As far as GLC’s, everyone I’ve known who has had one (including my brother) absolutely swears by them. That, the two 626’s my parents had, my brother’s Probe GT, and one of my upcoming COALs (hint: it’s a Mazda) really has me sold on Mazdas forever. I don’t think they got their just respect.

As far as GLC’s, everyone I’ve known who has had one (including my brother) absolutely swears by them.

My GLC was far from perfect. Bullet proof in the extreme, but not a handler. It suffered from typical, for the 70s, Japanese stiff spring/weak shock/lots of chassis flex syndrome.

I used to live in a town that had a very inviting little twisty road through a canyon. I loved to blast through there with my Renault, all 50 horses wailing, body rolling like a Dixie cup in a typhoon, but every wheel firmly planted on the pavement and in perfect control. I tried the same routine in the GLC, to great disappointment, as the GLC couldn’t hold a candle to the Renault’s suspension control.

Another thing I noticed about other 81-85 series GLCs, though it never afflicted mine: body sag. By the early 90s, I was seeing increasing numbers of GLCs with the back edge of the front fenders bent in. The fenders were bent in so uniformly, on so many GLCs, that I figured it had to be intentional. Only reason I could think of for people to bend in the edge of the fender was to clear the front edge of the door, and the only reason I could think of that being an issue was if the body had sagged over the years so the door would bind against the edge of the fender.

Yeah, you got a dud. I bought an ’84 Civic Sedan new. Not a lot of sound deadening, true, but the curb weight was under 2,000 pounds (your CRX was in the 1700s). I’d already decided a good Alpine audio system was going in, so no problem.

Not fast, but for the times, not especially slow, either…0-60 in 12 seconds. Your CRX Si should have been good for the mid-to-upper 8s.

Beyond that? 36 mpg city, 38 with the air off. 44 mpg highway, 46 with the air off. I had two friends with CRXs at the time…they’d see 38 city, 40 with the air off and 46 highway, 48 with the air off.

14 years and 144,000 trouble-free miles later, I gave mine to a friend who needed a car. She got another 40,000 out of it before trading up.

See, I think if I would have gotten a basic CRX or a Civic – not a HF or Si – my thoughts would have been different. I could have been happy with the car if it would have just done one thing well: gas mileage, sportiness, or commuter duty. It claimed to do all, but in reality the thing was just.. terrible.

In the spring of 1987 I purchased a silver ’87 CRX SI new. After 3 hours of “negotiations” the dealer agreed to sell it to me at sticker price, with no dealer add-on packages or “additional dealer profit”.

At the time, I was 6-0, 230 pounds, 48 inch chest, still in the gym 3 times a week. I found the CRX very roomy inside, as long as I reclined the seats a click or two. Much roomier than the trend setting but “Monday” built 1983 POS Thunderbird I traded in on the Honda.

As long as I kept the no power steering front tires at factory inflation specs it steered ok. Even my 50-something Mother enjoyed driving this one. Honda’s tight, short throw, “snick snick” 5 speed manual transmission became my “reference standard” for front wheel drive manual transmissions.

Since we have snow about once per generation here in New Orleans, I cannot comment on it’s handling in inclement weather conditions. I know It was great in the frequent, heavy rain we have here.

Agree on the lack of sound deadening, epically after the Thunderbird. I also employed the “crank up the tunes” method.

For the time period, that fuel injected 4 cylinder “nickel rocket” was dayum quick! Not Mustang 5.0 fast, but “real world” quick. Cars & trucks with twice the horsepower could not keep up with that nimble & peppy car in traffic. The car was narrow enough, the door mounted rear view mirrors far enough forward that I barely had to move my head to check for cars when changing lanes in heavy traffic. “Standing on it” in 2nd and 3rd gear would allow me to suck the headlights out of many cars on the road in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s.

The air conditioner worked ok, but “just barely” enough for the tropical, torrential combo of Heat & Humidity that soaks New Orleans for the 9 months of the year that locals call “summer”. My ’84 Civic S and my Father’s ’86 Civic SI had similar conditioners. I don’t recall much engine drag when the A/C compressor kick in; but the annoying thermostat “click” noise every time it did so always slightly irritated me. I recall that same solenoid “click” sound on every Honda of that time period.

When I did sell it, the first person that looked at it bought it, without dickering a penny on my “top dollar” figure.

You know, I bet new it was quite the car compared to everything out there. I’ve been in the same vintage IROC Camaros, Mustangs, and other domestics – they were crap. I’ll just cut to the chase. Same air leaks on the window sills, terrible mileage (instead of just annoying), and terrible build quality. We won’t even mention handling. I wouldn’t have touched one of them (and didn’t look at one) when I was buying the CRX on purpose. BUT! At least they had.. something about them. Even though they were crap, had terrible mileage, rattled, and couldn’t handle – the TPI 305 IROCs were interesting cars. I’ll definitely give them that.

Oh and I forgot about the key part of the AC – not only did it suck power, but as you mentioned, it barely kept up. My courier route in the city was more often than not done with it off.

As relates to your old Ford being quieter than a new Honda, Dearborn trumpeting (if that’s the right word) their quiet cabins was a meme in advertising for over ten years. They were the first non luxury American marque to make a big deal of sealing out road and engine noise.

It really was a great highway car, it took me a long time to find another one that compared to it. Which really was ironic, considering, that technologically by 1995 vehicles were so far ahead in so many ways – but that Galaxie shone at 60-70mph on the open road.

I think a lot of your CRX experience was about expectations. You really can’t compare a 1700 lb FWD commuter to a 4000 lb RWD sled. It’s pure apples and oranges. I’ve driven plenty of FWD cars in snow and they go great; just have the right tires. As for fuel economy, well I’d wager it was a lot better than the Ford.

One of the reasons I love Honda cars is their light weight. It comes from somewhere .

See, it’s a car I really wanted to love. I would have, too, had it done something well.. it just didn’t. I tried to love it, going so far as replacing all the suspension components, and much of the ignition and fuel delivery systems in hopes of better handling and fuel economy – but no dice. It definitely did better than the Galaxie, by a long stretch, but as a comparison it didn’t do much better than my Dad’s 626 ES, or friends’ Taurii.

Oh and snow, I chased the right tire for that thing. More sets of tires – five! – on that thing than any other car I owned trying to get it through a winter.

That said, a good friend had a 1994 Accord LX coupe with a manual transmission that was one of the most enjoyable cars I’ve driven. It did everything the CRX was supposed to do – and did it in comfort. Had I had one of those, the tune of this COAL would have been different.

What exactly was wrong with it, though? EPA ratings for the CRX Si are 26cty/30hwy – which sounds like what you got. It’s a high strung 1,500cc engine, so having to downshift out of top gear on highway inclines seems normal, as does the A/C effecting performance. 3,000rpm @ 70MPH seems normal (quick gearing), noisy and twitchy on the highway seems normal (light construction, very short wheelbase), stiff ride – normal, lift oversteer – normal (Si model), bad in the snow? Wouldn’t have thought they were especially bad, but there’s hardly any ground clearance… handling is only subjective to a point, and unless yours was seriously broken, this is considered one of the best FWD chassis of all time. If the back end wanted to come around off-throttle on exit ramps, then it sounds like it was working properly. Small interior? Well, I mean… it’s a CRX after all.

Interesting perspective and write up on the CRX.
My wife’s first new car was a 87 CRX Si.
She still maintains it was probably the best car she had ever owned.

Possibly because it was new , but our trip in it across the Midwest to Yellowstone , and back again across North Dakota to Minnesota was nothing but delightful.
Very roomy car for me ,and I am 6’2 in height.

Quiet ride, no wind noise, and it was the first time I had ever approached 40mpg with a vehicle .
I also enjoyed screaming around exit ramps with it ,as I thought its cornering was superb, at least by 1987 standards
We would probably have kept it forever, except for the fact that Crx’s are not quite so perfect when needing to be fitted with a car seat, for a soon to be arriving child>

Civics are ok for what they are, which is a bargain basement Japanese runabout built around a 100kmh speed limit. They have moderate fuel economy average roadholding and moderate performance, if you want to go fast and corner hard you need to spend more money but NO Honda is ever going to challenge a ZX ,306 or Xsara hatch on a twisty road no matter how many boy racer add ons you fit. I had a 4ws Prelude yeah nice try Honda but not quite good enough.

Excellent point! As a counterpoint almost literally right after I sold the CRX my dad got my sister a cherry 1987 300ZX as her first car. It was as polar opposite of the CRX that I could have fathomed, and a car that was just plain amazing – and it didn’t even have the turbo motor!

A lot of Hondas, particularly of the ’80s and ’90s, were not great on road noise control even when new. Honda tried with the subsequent generation of Civic to reduce the noise levels with mixed results. The issue tends to be more pronounced on hatchbacks — particularly on something like the CRX — than on sedans and coupes, where the rear seats provide additional insulation from rear axle noise. (I think that’s part of why American buyers ended up preferring the three-box configuration; it was quieter!) Wind noise is more variable and tends to depend on the condition of the door seals.

The sportier models also tend to have closer-ratio gearboxes that sacrifice cruising economy and noise levels for better performance. The plain CRX was geared for around 21.7 mph/1,000 rpm in fifth, but the Si was something like 19.3 mph/1,000 rpm, so you’re at almost 3,400 rpm at 65 mph. The assumption was that you were buying the Si as a sports car — or if you took the press kit at face value, a sporty urban runabout — and that if you were more interested in economy, you’d probably get the plain CRX or HF (or in Japan the 1.3-liter engine that was only available on early U.S. cars), which had taller gearing and less power. As it is, I’d expect the Si to get better mileage than a 626 in mixed or urban driving; straight highway cruising is really more a function of drag and engine speed than anything else.

Oh the CRX definitely beat the 626 in the city, but on the highway the mileage was just about equal. Of course everything else was polar difference – the 626 was a fantastic place to eat up the miles, it is the second most comfortable highway cruiser I’ve been in (the title goes to it’s replacement, a ’96 SHO).

I guess the most annoying thing about the high RPM’s on the highway is that you’d assume it would be able to pull up the hills since it was starting to hit it’s powerband – but it couldn’t. I found that the only time that was true is when you were above 80, but by then it was loud enough to annoy even with a loud stereo and the mileage would be in the low 20’s. So it became the only M/T vehicle I’ve owned that I had to downshift on the Interstate to get up hills.

The Prelude had similarly short gearing, which was unfortunate because the Prelude otherwise was a much more civilized car (particularly the 1988–1991 vintage). On the other hand, the 2.0 and 2.1-liter Prelude engines had a lot more torque than the 1.5-liter CRX and so you at least didn’t have any issues with top-gear response on the highway. Personally, I would rather have a top gear that’s easier on the nerves (and gas) and shift down to fourth.

(I think that’s part of why American buyers ended up preferring the three-box configuration; it was quieter!)

My Aunt’s 98 Civic sedan was indeed quieter than my 98 Civic hatch, however, my hatch was in DX trim, while the sedan was in LX trim, one step up with lots of extra little creature comforts, and, possibly, more sound insulation. I also had a 97 Civic coupe in DX trim and I didn’t notice it being any quieter than my hatch. *All* of the late 90s Civics, regardless of trim, were quieter than the racket that emanated from my Aunt’s 87 Subaru sedan.

The quietest car I have had in recent years was a Taurus X, a honking big SUV with an open cargo area in back, but the T-Rex is known for it’s stout construction.

It always amuses me that when someone publishes something unfavorable about a Honda, the apologists come out in force. If the author had said the same thing about a Cavalier, there would be 200 posts about how sh!tty those cars were. The Civic? It was said that Steve Jobs had a reality distortion field he employed when talking about Apple Computers, I say the Honda fans use the same thing.

For all of the arguments against the author’s recollection of the car, the fact remains, he did not like the car. It has nothing to do with the fact that other owners liked their car, it didn’t work for him. I have the same problem with Ford Tempos/Mercury Topazes, no matter how I tried, the car didn’t work for me.

I’ve had mixed experiences with Honda products myself, I dated a young woman in the early 80’s who had a Accord that was far less than fantastic. I’ve thought that if we’d had the car in the early 2000’s and it had a Hyundai logo on it instead of a Honda logo, we’d thought it was a POS.

Ben buddy, it ain’t just you. Don’t feel bad about your experiences, they’re yours. Not everyone is required to love Hondas, Fords, or Ladas, no matter their reputation.

I had a friend who bought an 87 crx si, I was holding off for the Toyota 88 supercharged MR2. I had put several hundred miles on the car waiting for my
MR2 to arrive, my current vehicle was an 84 Fiero SE (don’t ask) and the CRX seemed okay, a little loud on the interstate. Hard to explain, engine revs, wind noise. Then the accident. My roommates CRX was T Boned, one side from the beater that ran the light and the passenger side that hit the pole and bent the platform around the pole . I thought it would be totaled, a unibody with that much damage. When I was growing up in Miami in the 1970s my Dad owned a paint and body shop known for his work on exotics, it may take 3 months but the car was as built or he would not accept the work. He was retired in 87 but when he saw the Honda he said not repairable. The insurance company found a shop who would repair it. When he got the car back it looked brand new. However it never drove the same. Highway driving it would not track right, on and off ramps could be scary. He took it to a shop that only worked on frames, both unibody and body on frame. Even though the panel gaps looked good the car was badly twisted. To repair the car would have to be completely disassembled, straightened then reassembled at a cost above vehicle value. After a protracted time lawyers the insurance bought the car for replacement value. By that time he had driven my MR2 and bought one. My guess is that the CRX went to a dealer auction and quickly was sold, it really looked new and lot drove perfect. I wonder if this CRX may have had a similar experience.

You might have liked the 2nd gen better. My father had an 88 SI (slightly modified he added a cold air intake strut bars and a few other bolt-ons). I never had any weird handling with the 88. To me it was like a go cart with heat (no AC on his) it would fly around corners flat as can be. You did have to rev the piss out of it for any power I would often drive for entire trips basically never dropping under 4000 rpm and sending it past redline quite a bit. It was also loud and annoying to drive for any distance. But handling was excellent. I also had a roomate with an SI pretty much the same experience lots of fun on a back road at redline. I did drive my fathers a few times in the snow and with a decent set of snow tires it was possible but not all that much fun.

My secretary had one. Her husband hit a deer at 45 mph when it was 2 weeks old. The insurance co paid to repair it as the repair cost was $100 less than it was worth. After 6 months, it was finally repaired and they traded it in for something else as they knew the car was trash.

There was a guy in my college who had a CRX as his project around 2003. I think he had pictures of it and spoke about it. I couldn’t afford a car at the time and even the college charged us for parking, so I took the bus and graduated debt free.

I can still find a couple of 90s CRXs for sale for $4500 to $5000 but they have been well used and not quite stock. It has to be rare around here to find one in mint and original, non-modified condition due to road salt and mostly younger owners/tuner crowd. Much like some older Civics, some people keep rebuilding these cars and replacing parts including engines.

A friend from high school had one as his second car, an ’86 that he bought in ’97. 17 years later he still owns it, so his experience has been more of a love story whereas yours was a tale of tragedy. Just goes to show that sometimes it really does come down to the day it was built, its life before reaching your hands, or just personal preference.